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Clear Channel Columbus

Interesting to note that Jimbo has bought the Archway stations in Columbus - it was just announced last week.
I wonder why a very wealthy man like Jim Martin would want to putz around with these puddle jumpers in the gnatty bright lights of Columbus, Georgia. Seems like at this point in life you retire and eat BBQ for lunch every day......
 
I'll bet he paid a lot less than the $15 million pricetag the McClures gave Archway.  Clear Channel is right about the fact that radio is very undervalued right now - and there are suddenly a lot of stations on fire-sale right now, the ones that didn't make the leap into the 21st century and non-traditional revenue... but radio is about to come out of the slump; with so many people broke now, no Sirius XM or iPhones for them... Radio is still FREE, and soon (five years) HD radios will be standard equipment on the road! Clear Channel has a passel of National sidechannels to pick from now.

Still, it's a sad day for Columbus radio.  WCGQ still has the potential to be a bright spot; it still has heritage.  I'm glad I got to work for the McClure family.  Now that WSHE (1270) and WBFA (98.3) are in the Aloha Station Trust, I wonder if Jimbo is going to buy them too.
 
MCMagicCracker said:
I'll bet he paid a lot less than the $15 million pricetag the McClures gave Archway. Clear Channel is right about the fact that radio is very undervalued right now - and there are suddenly a lot of stations on fire-sale right now, the ones that didn't make the leap into the 21st century and non-traditional revenue...
Click to expand...

properties are hardly undervalued. The problem is that Clear Channel paid WAY to much for properties in order to try to obtain world dominance. The market is correcting itself and stations are coming back down to reasonable prices. CC is going to take a bath on most of these stations they are selling off because market prices are not getting upwards of 12 times cash flow.
 
MCMagicCracker said:
I'll bet he paid a lot less than the $15 million pricetag the McClures gave Archway. Clear Channel is right about the fact that radio is very undervalued right now - and there are suddenly a lot of stations on fire-sale right now, the ones that didn't make the leap into the 21st century and non-traditional revenue... but radio is about to come out of the slump; with so many people broke now, no Sirius XM or iPhones for them... Radio is still FREE, and soon (five years) HD radios will be standard equipment on the road! Clear Channel has a passel of National sidechannels to pick from now.

Still, it's a sad day for Columbus radio. WCGQ still has the potential to be a bright spot; it still has heritage. I'm glad I got to work for the McClure family. Now that WSHE (1270) and WBFA (98.3) are in the Aloha Station Trust, I wonder if Jimbo is going to buy them too.
Click to expand...

How about $7.2 million--that is a lot less than $15 million!
 
Wow! I have been out of the market for almost 10 years now...travel back home a few times a year...the market doesn't resemble the late 80's and early 90's. I worked for both McClure's, where I started, and for Jimbo back when it was Still M&M and the beginning of the rule by The Evil Empire. It would be nice to see a revamp of WCGQ go back to the moniker that was 107Q and put personality back into radio...it would almost be worth moving back home to be a part of it! I miss the Days of Al Haynes in the morning followed by Lee Baby McCard, Brian "H20" waters, Shelby Guest, Mark in the Dark Ross, Dave Kelly and James Steele and Jeff Michaels...thats when radio in Columbus was still cool...even Tim Ryan rocked!..ok I am officially in my mid life crisis!
 
Wishful thinking all; HD radio will be a dog. Who wants to listen to cruddy radio in high definition when you can listen to better playlists and personalities on satellite radio? My prediction is that terrestrial radio will be nothing but stations acting as wholesalers for syndicated programming. Oh and at Target four 20.00 bills and some change will get you a cheap radio with an SD input, a USB input, and a hole for the Ipod. Be your own PD!
 
Hey jamz1970,

I was at Sunny 100 from 1989-1996, and took over as PD/OM for Joe Cook when he left for Chattanooga the first time. When Ken Woodfin sold to Jimbo and Tommy, I stayed on for about six weeks, and helped move the station from that wonderful building that KW built at Wynnton and 13th, into that DUMP farther up Wynnton across from Channel 9. I was never on the M+M payroll, because I was the "licensee representative" for The Woodfin Group during the LMA.

Okay, actually, the DUMP assessment is not completely accurate. The WVRK control room was still a decent place, with its "floating" design. I remember you could turn the air monitor ALL THE WAY UP, walk out of the room, close the door, and hear... silence. PR&E BMX console, top-of-the-line PR&E "Tomcat" cart machines back in the day... nice. Now as for Sunny's studio in that place, Frank McLemore ripped out the studio furniture from the 1015 Peachtree location, and crammed it into a converted bathroom/Coke machine closet, with a lovely view of the dumpster and the back parking lot.

It took about two run-ins with Jimbo to make my decision to leave Sunny for Macon and Oldies 99WAYS. But we had some great times in the market working against Lee Baby, Al Haynes, Dave Kelly (bigshot with Citadel!). Even when 'CGQ lost their freakin' minds and went to the "Lite 107.3" format, we still loved 'em all. What in the world was Joe McClure smoking when he made THAT move? It was just so weird to hear Al and Lee trying to sound "soft AC" when we just KNEW they were DYING to rock out. I really felt sorry for those guys.

Don't know when you started in the market, but you might also remember Chuck Harris. Funny, his name popped into my head just recently. Amazing voiceover talent. He was, I believe, programming 'CGQ, but was on the air on WRCG doing afternoons in the last days of their "full-service" format, before they went all news-talk. Chuck dropped dead of a massive heart attack while in Atlanta. After the McClures tossed him out, he used to stop by Sunny to use our studios for some of his voiceover clients. I know Chuck did the Warren's clothing stores spots for Rick McKnight for quite a while until his death. I took over doing those briefly after his passing.

Okay, enough... there actually was a time when Columbus radio was pretty darned good.

TDO
 
Ok this must be Dave M. Yeah Chuck was the PD at the time when I started at CGQ as an intern with Mark Ross and Dave Kelly. I remember making some him well, an excellent set of pipes. You were PD when Alan Quin worked there...funny I was doing nights and Q and he was doing nights at Sunny and we were room mates!..We'd be going at each other all night and by 11:45....which club are we going to and who's buying tonight. We'd be at Al Who's he in a Sunny Shirt and me in a Q shirt! those were great times in radio for me! I worked for Ken when he first purchased the station (now WULA...then WIOL...before some call swaps orr something) in Eufaula, and tried to just keep it in the black until he could get his upgrades and new transmitter site completed. How is he? do you ever talk with him...Gosh he must be 80 something now!!! But a very nice guy to have worked with. I think those were some of the best years before..the corporates got involved... Man I am homesick now!!!
 
Wrong on the ID... it's David Nolin.

Right about the time Ken Woodfin sold Sunny to M+M, I found out that Steve McGowan, for whom I'd worked at WULA-WKQK/Eufaula back in the 80's, had taken the stations back over from the guy he sold them to, after he defaulted on some loans. At any rate, Steve had found a way to upgrade WULA-FM (92.7) to a Class C2, with a tower near Cottonton, and he didn't want to hang on to the stations himself. So I put the two in touch with each other, Woodfin bought the station, and eventually got the upgrade built and put studios in Columbus. It took awhile, though, and I remember KW commuting 2-3 days a week to Eufaula to operate the station until he could get the upgrade done. I did his imaging through that "Mix 93" period before they got the move-in done and became classic rock as "The River".
 
Sorry about the id David!!...had the right guy in mind just the wrong last name...it's been a while....Yeah you helped me out some when I was in Eufaula...like they say...the mind is the second thing to go!
 
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